Steven Gerrard, center, and goalkeeper Joe Hart, right, pass members of the Brazilian army at the squad’s hotel for the 2014 soccer World Cup in Rio do Janeiro (Picture: AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Qatar’s bid to host the 2022 World Cup was thrown into fresh doubt last night after a series of Fifa’s biggest sponsors broke their silence on corruption allegations.

Fifa partners Sony, Adidas and Visa weighed into the row as new claims emerged about the former Qatari Fifa vice-president Mohammed bin Hammam.

He is already accused of paying millions of pounds in bribes, and is now facing claims that he secured a multi-million-dollar gas export deal in exchange for Thailand’s support of the bid.

Mr Bin Hammam was banned for life by Fifa in 2012 over conflict of interest allegations, and Qatar claims he had no role in the bid process.

But that has not reassured the companies that hold the Fifa purse strings.

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Sony which has a sponsorship deal worth more than £180million said: ‘We expect these allegations to be investigated appropriately. We expect Fifa to adhere to its principles of integrity, ethics and fair play across all aspects of its operations.’

Adidas, which has sponsored Fifa since 1970, said: ‘The negative tenor of the public debate around Fifa at the moment is neither good for football nor Fifa and its partners.’

Fifa’s internal investigation, conducted by former US attorney Michael Garcia, is due to finish in the next few days. But it was not clear whether the latest allegations would be examined.

Visa, which is due to sponsor the 2022 tournament, said: ‘We will continue to monitor Fifa’s internal investigation. Our expectation is that all of our partners maintain strong ethical standards and operate with transparency.’

And Castrol, which is a sponsor for the 2014 tournament, said: ‘We expect Fifa to deal with this in the right and proper manner.’

Former FA chief executive Mark Palios warned yesterday that investigators would find it hard to prove the allegations.

‘The trouble is that they don’t have the power of investigation that the police or the Inland Revenue have,’ he said.

The Qatari bid team insisted: ‘We are confident that, at the end of the appropriate process, the award of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar will stand.’